Caitlin Rose – Dead Flowers EP

Over the past few years, the female singer ranks have been piqued by the odd lady who harks back to a more simple, traditional version of one woman and her heartbreak. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, for example. Her solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat, told tales of old-fashioned adultery and a more humble way of life. Kimya Dawson, veteran of this genre, was recently exposed to a whole new audience thanks to the success of her cutesy home-grown ditties on the soundtrack to indie-flick smash Juno. And She and Him use Zooey Deschanel’s wholesome country twang to brilliant effect in anthems of heartbreak and bar brawls.

And so the latest recruit to the female-scorned resurgence is Caitlin Rose, although she owes more to artists like Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams than her contemporaries. Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee (where else?), she’s got some heavy musical heritage behind her.

Her Dead Flowers EP is a collection of gusty, tongue-in-cheek (the lyrics to ‘Shotgun Wedding’ will provoke at least a chuckle), tambourine jangling banjo strumming ditties.

‘Gorilla’ is undoubtedly the high point – give a girl a tambourine and nothing else and she’ll write you an absolute toe-tapper. It’s only a minute and a half long, but her quick-witted words and the jingle jangle will hang around for a lot longer.

In a contrast to the brilliantly vulgar lyrics of ‘Docket’, and the classic blues-y drinking tale in the whisky-soaked ‘Answer In One of These Bottles’, the only real low point is her cover of Patsy Cline’s ‘Three Cigarettes (in an ashtray)’. It’s bordering on a little too sickly, lacking the bounce and charm of the rest of the EP, but does reiterate this 20 year-old has certainly got a decent set of lungs on her.

Later there’s a far better suited cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Dead Flowers’. With slide and acoustic guitar and warm backing vocals, it’s got just the right amount of poignancy and hope, as well as Caitlin’s wonderfully nostalgic voice soaring to the rafters.

At seven tracks this is almost twice the length of your average EP – one more track and she could’ve called it an album. This, combined with the cover versions, means there’s a lack of direction and perhaps a missed opportunity for Caitlin to really stamp out her identity on this EP. However, her own tracks and unmistakable voice do enough to set her apart, and I suspect in a few months we’ll be in no doubt as to who she is.